A Day at the Magical Zoo
by Lara Hillins
Summary: Luna and Neville are volunteering in a magical zoo while they learn about the strange creatures and plants which fascinate them when on a lunch break at a nearby cafe they meet Draco Malfoy pondering how safe it is to eat the food after struggling with detection charms being counteracted and poison being added in similar places.


Luna paused for a minute before reaching to pick the heavey bucket up again. Volunteering to help at a magical wildlife preservation park had sounded like a good idea when she stumbled upon it while hunting for crumple-horned snorkacks, but it was turning out to be a lot harder work than she'd expected.

Now it was time to feed the fire-breathing scaled koala's, and it wasn't advised to be late getting their food to them unless you wanted to get burnt.

"Hurry up Luna," Neville called, waiting until she caught him up before opening the entrance to their part of the park.

Luna laughed, grabbing the bucket "I'm still amazed you were here before me, Nev. Tell me again why you came here." Luna asked, as they started emptying their buckets of food on the feeding table.

"I've already said about 10 times Luna, I got into it because Professor Sprout mentioned there's some wonderful magical plants kept and protected here as well as the animals, and the best way to learn about them was through volunteering here. I'm very glad that they've let me work especially closely on a brand of lemon which instead of making a sour taste varies the flavour as people are eating it, getting sour and sweet at different times. It's also been noticed recently that it gives people heat sensitive vision for an hour per lemon." Neville explained as they finished emptying the buckets, grinning at the strangeness of the idea.

"So you came straight here, while I just stumbled upon the idea of discovering the strange creatures they have here instead of the many creatures nobody seems to know about." Luna laughed, "Shall we go and get some lunch? I'm hungry after seeing those koala's eating."

Neville shrugged, "Sounds like a good idea, but after those injured Hippogriffs this morning I am never using a straw again, even if the wires to get medicine into their mouths aren't technically straws they freaked me out."

"Yeah, I never thought using that muggle medicine technique would help in a wizarding zoo." Luna replied, leading the way to her favourite cafe in the area.

It wasn't one of the popular cafe's for tourists, but it could get a little busy with their work colleagues sometimes, especially when there were lots of them at the start of each month. Apparently that day Draco Malfoy had decided to visit the park, then have lunch in the cafe, which seemed strange since it could still attract attention and Draco Malfoy now tried to avoid all the attention he could since he was still recognised as an ex-death eater, whatever Harry had tried to do to stop the rejection of him.

"Hello Draco." Luna greeted him as She and Neville passed his table.

"Oh, um, hi Luna, Hi Neville." Draco muttered. "Can you remember a charm to check for poisons? I'm being careful currently, a guy the other day tried giving me drink spiked with cyanide."

Neville looked shocked and annoyed at someone trying to poison the boy who had used to bully him. "Come and join us for lunch, and I can show you a couple of spells which will help you then. I can't believe anyone could be like that to you. If Harry has forgiven you then so have I" Neville fumed, explaining his reaction when he noticed Malfoy's surprised expression.

"If you don't mind me joining you, otherwise I could just talk to you later." Draco replied, apparently thinking they were on a date.

Luna smiled, the serene smile that had haunted Draco through his Hogwarts years. "We don't mind Draco. This is just two friends having lunch to talk about work, it's not a date. Come and sit with us so we can help."

Draco got up then, happy to have friends or at least acquaintances to eat with. "Thanks for the offer of help but I doubt you can if even the saviour of the wizarding world is still unsuccessful in it. Hermione's spells have apparently had counter spells created."

"We can help there then. "Luna smiled again, this time to Neville, knowing he'd created a few of his own spells. "Hermione studies for spells already made and hasn't worked out how to make her own spells, but Neville has carried on learning about Charms as well as Herbology so has invented a few of his own."

"Really? That's a bit of a shock, remembering the boy you were at the start of Hogwarts." The tone in Draco's voice was more envious than shocked, as though he wished he could invent a few charms to help him.

Neville smiled slightly, "Well I have changed quite a bit since then. Let's order some food and I can show you the spells as we eat."

"I think I'll have the soup and bread, perhaps with some chicken thighs to add a bit more sustenance." Luna said after seconds of looking at the menus they were given.

"Surprisingly enough that's what I was thinking of having too, except I was thinking of having garlic bread instead of chicken thighs." Neville laughed, thinking it was the best thing to show any of his charms on for the first time.

"Me too, except I was thinking of a small portion of pasta, let's get three soups for you to show me these charms on." Malfoy added, joining in their laughter.

After their soup was delivered the next half hour was spent in small chatter and showing the charms to Draco as well as Luna explaining about some creature that could instantly tell if something was poisoned, that neither Neville or Draco were certain actually existed.


End file.
